In this ambitious book, Professor Carla Mallet examines the nature and behavior of these two languages ​​as they crossed the shores of the Mediterranean, narrating a fascinating biography of language as we have never known it before—a language teeming with writers, compilers, copyists, translators, and commentators, and transmitting knowledge from one land to another in a time that predates the emergence of national languages ​​in the late Middle Ages and early modernity. What is the relationship between the language of the elite and the languages ​​of everyday life? How did these languages ​​transition from infancy to maturity? What is their fate in the twenty-first century, amid the pitfalls of a monolingual system, the ethics of language choice, and nationalism? This book sheds light on previously unexplored corners for anyone interested in linguistics, the history of languages, literary traditions, the transmission of ideas, and the expression of culture in a multilingual world.